This is a fascinating and compelling volume exploring how religion has held back and hindered scientific progress for more than a thousand years. It has become the prevalent view among sociologists, historians, and some theistic scientists that religion and science have never been in serious conflict. Some even claim that Christianity was responsible for the development of science. In God and the Folly of Faith , physicist Victor J. Stenger argues that this conclusion flies in the face of the historical facts. In a sweeping historical survey that begins with ancient Greek science and proceeds through the Renaissance and Enlightenment to contemporary advances in physics and cosmology, Stenger makes a convincing case that Christianity held back the progress of science for 1,000 years. This thorough and hard-hitting critique is a must-read for anyone interested in the interaction between religion and science.